School in Massachusetts that has been accused of Torture by UN paid $100000 to lobby Congress
by Mike Reynolds
for Ability Maine

    The Judge Rotenburg Center, a controversial school in Massachusetts, in an article by the Boston Globe that was published on Februrary 28th, 2011, reportedly spent a hundred thousand dollars and enlisted several parents to defeat a proposal in Congress to ban the use of aversive therapy in the US.
    The money was reportly paid to the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani, headed by former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, to lobby against passage of the bill. According to  the reports in the Boston Globe, Guiliani was not involved in the decision.
    The school also hired a PR firm in California to help with it’s lobbying campaign, with the bill dying in the Senate. It is expected that the law is going to be reintroduced this year. The Center reportedly has a annual budget of $40 million and is the only school in the nation to use aversives such as electrical shocks. The center has a population of individuals with severe disabilities, including self abusive behavior. In 2010, the Department of Justice opened an investigation into the Center and the UN accused the school of “torturing” it’s students. 

To read the full Boston Globe report, go here.